Original subtitles

NARRATION: Throughout Eastern Europe

millions vowed to build the communist paradise.

They toiled to carry out orders

and plans dictated from Moscow.

They marched behind the banners of Joseph Stalin.

The Soviet Union mourns the death of Stalin.

For almost three decades, Stalin ruled supreme.

How would they manage without him?

IRINA DRABKINA: [speaking Russian ]

It felt as if the whole world was about to collapse.

We wondered what was going to happen to us.

We thought of Stalin as our father

who would always look after us.

NARRATION: Stalin died without naming a successor.

A collective leadership emerged led by:

Georgii Malenkov

Lavrenti Beria

Vyacheslav Molotov

and Nikita Khrushchev.

Millions of Russians grieved for their dead leader,

even though his rule had been ruthless and

their own welfare neglected.

Stalin had transformed the Soviet Union into a super power.

But at his death,

relations with America

and the West had seldom been worse.

For ten years the world

has been dominated by the malignant power of Stalin.

A new era begins,

an era in which the guiding spirit is liberty,

not enslavement,

and when human relations will be those of fraternity,

not one-man domination.

America too had a new leadership.

President Eisenhower, Secretary of State Dulles

and Vice President Nixon

pledged that they would roll back

the frontiers of Soviet power.

Eisenhower and Dulles had accused

the Truman administration of being soft on communism.

Now they had the opportunity to challenge Soviet power.

But could eastern Europe be freed from

Soviet domination without a nuclear war?

ROBERT BOWIE: Dulles had talked about liberation

but Eisenhower insisted that he do so,

that when he did so he'd couple it with,

by peaceful means,

and so it is not at all obvious how liberation in the sense

of roll-back could be achieved merely by peaceful means.

NARRATION: The Soviet Empire extended across Europe into Hungary,

Czechoslovakia, Poland and into Germany,

which called itself the German Democratic Republic.

Stalin had chosen Walter Ulbricht as the ruler

of East Germany.

He headed a regime servile to Moscow.

After Stalin's death, Ulbricht pressed on rebuilding

his part of Germany along Stalinist lines.

ARCHIVE NARRATION: [speaking German ]

NARRATION: Heavy industry was built up to meet

the demands of the Soviet economy.

Workers were ordered to increase their output.

Everyday needs were neglected.

ALFRED BERLIN: [speaking German ]

The average person lived very badly.

If you're talking about the things everybody needs

like heating, coal, electricity,

these things were all rationed.

Electricity for domestic use was simply not available.

The morale of the population dropped to zero.

NARRATION: Like Stalin,

Ulbricht tolerated no opposition.

The secret police, the Stasi, had its informers everywhere.

Many churches were closed.

Censorship prevailed.

But East Germany was unable to stop

people deserting to the West.

Travel to the British,

American and French sectors of Berlin was open to East Germans.

Thousands simply packed their bags and left.

ARCHIVE NARRATION: The flow of East German refugees to sanctuary

in the western sector of Berlin reaches record

proportions with news of the death of Stalin.

Conditions are none too comfortable for these people

but they are happy to be beyond the reach of the Reds.

NARRATION: Undeterred,

Ulbricht demanded renewed loyalty from East Germans.

Alarmed, the new leaders in the

Kremlin ordered Uibricht to soften his rigid policies.

He complied only half-heartedly.

The hated production quotas remained in place.

[Speaking German ]

If you were timed with a stopwatch to make a screw

and it took you four minutes,

you were now expected to do it in two and a half.

That was the shocking thing,

this raise in work quotas and the pressure to produce.

It was all too much for working people.

Popular anger exploded.

Workers took to the streets of East Berlin.

[Speaking German ]

When we passed construction sites, everybody -

metalworkers, locksmiths, masons, carpenters -

all joined us.

When we arrived at the city hospital,

there were several thousand people with us.

Banners appeared at the construction sites saying,

"Down with the work quota increases!"

NARRATION: News of the growing unrest soon spread to West Berlin.

I was having lunch in an open-air restaurant

in West Berlin on the 16th of June when a friend of mine,

who was in military government and probably in intelligence,

drove past and said to me,

'Charles, you ought to be in East Berlin'.

So I got into my car and I went over

and ran into the building workers,

who by that time had left the building sites,

were on strike and were marching through East Berlin.

And where I caught up with them was near the

Friedrichstrassebahnhof station,

the main station right in the middle of East Berlin.

And by that time, striking in itself was,

was a political act, was an act of rebellion

but marching through the streets was something more.

It was almost kicking off a revolution.

NARRATION: Strikes and mass demonstrations erupted

in East Berlin and throughout East Germany.

Demonstrators tore down the symbol of Soviet domination,

the Hammer and Sickle.

Government authority in East Berlin collapsed.

A senior East German communist, Karl Schirdewan,

was horrified.

[Speaking German ]

Ulbricht, Grotewohl, Hermstadt and a few others

were all inside the Soviet headquarters at Karlshorst.

They just sat there and talked among themselves

but nobody made any decisions.

Nobody called for a meeting of the central committee.

I thought the party was leaderless.

NARRATION: The demonstrators vented their anger on all

visible reminders of communist rule.

The Soviet authorities were astonished that Uibricht

had allowed the crisis to get out of control.

ALEXANDER BOGOMOLOV: [speaking Russian ]

When Ulbricht arrived at the Soviet headquarters

at Karlshorst,

he telephoned Karl Schirdewan

and asked him what was going on.

Schirdewan reported that there were a lot of drunks

in the crowd and they were smashing the windows

and were about to break in.

Ulbricht put the phone down and said in German,

'It's all over!'

He said it in a way which, in Russian, roughly translates as,

'It's the end!'

I wondered what did it all mean.

Even if they smash the windows, they have no weapons.

It will take us no more than five minutes to sort them out.

They were trying to elect a strike committee

from the leaders of the workers

when four Russian tanks drove into the square,

four abreast, and went straight for the crowd.

And I remember one man got caught

and was run over by a tank.

ARCHIVE NARRATION: [speaking German ]

[Speaking German ]

We couldn't do anything against the tanks with

our bare hands and stones.

As soon as the firing started, people began to drop down,

wounded or dead.

The shooting broke up the demonstration.

For us the dream of freedom was over.

NARRATION: Soviet troops quelled the revolt throughout East Germany.

At least forty people were killed

and thousands were arrested.

It was the first time that East German and

Soviet troops closed off the Soviet sector of Berlin

from the rest of the city.

The British, the Americans and the French

were all for a quiet life.

Their concern was to have security of the access

routes to West Berlin

but they wouldn't get into difficulties with the Russians.

That was all they were interested in.

They did not want to get involved.

NARRATION: With the situation stabilized,

East Germany's rulers set off for Moscow.

Outside of the Soviet bloc, few countries recognized

Ulbrichfs German Democratic Republic.

NARRATION: In the Kremlin, the ubiquitous Molotov

signed another agreement with the Germans.

Stalin's old cronies - Malenkov, Voroshilov,

Khrushchev, Bulgahih, Mikoyah and Kagahovitch -

decided to stick with Ulbricht.

NARRATION: Carefully orchestrated for the cameras,

the Politburo bid farewell

and good fortune to their East German comrades.

NARRATION: One person was missing.

Stalin's secret police chief Lavrenti Beria.

The Kremlin claimed he spied for the West.

Later that year, he was executed.

In September 1953,

Konrad Adenauer was re-elected as West Germany's Chancellor.

Adenauer wanted his half of Germany

to become a partner in NATO, the West's military alliance.

[Speaking German ]

We wanted a strong NATO as a defensive barrier

against the Soviet Union.

We also wanted to prevent any expansion

of the Soviet Union into western Europe.

We could only achieve these aims if we had a West German army.

NARRATION: With American backing, Adenauer persuaded Britain

and France to let their former wartime enemy into NATO.

Gut morgen, Soldaten!

NARRATIONI In 1955,

West Germany was allowed to form an army.

The Soviets quickly countered West Germany's

admission into NATO by forming their own military alliance -

the Warsaw Pact.

The Pact formally bound the armies of the communist

satellites to the Soviet High command.

The new treaty legitimized the presence

of Soviet troops in Eastern Europe.

Both East and West claimed their alliances were defensive -

both prepared for war.

But the Soviets wanted to reduce tension in Europe.

Molotov, the Kremiirfs hard-line Foreign Minister,

was ordered to negotiate an Austrian peace treaty,

and the withdrawal of Soviet troops.

[speaking Russian ]

Only Molotov spoke against it.

The others were more restrained.

He said, 'Why should we withdraw?

We're very comfortable there'.

That was his position.

But most of the Soviet leaders disagreed

with him and thought we had to make a goodwill gesture

and start talks in Europe.

NARRATION: In Vienna,

Molotov joined John Foster Dulles, and the British

and French foreign ministers in signing a peace treaty.

ARCHIVE - VOICE: Oesterreich ist frei!

[ Applause ]

NARRATION: Britain, France, America and the Soviet Union

agreed to end their military occupation of Austria.

In return, the Austrians promised permanent neutrality.

Ten years after the end of the Second World War,

the West and the Soviet Union withdrew their troops.

Their departure encouraged some people to hope that one day

Soviet troops might also pull out of Eastern Europe.

In the Kremlin power struggle,

Khrushchev had out-maneuvered Malehkov and Molotov.

In 1955,

he led a Soviet delegation to Yugoslavia.

Khrushchev wanted to repair the damage Stalin had caused by

expelling President Tito's Yugoslavia from the

communist bloc.

SERGEI KHRUSHCHEV: My father,

he thought that these people fought against Fascism

and really there's only one country in the Europe who

won itself, not by the help of the Soviet Union, itself.

So he thought,

I have to go there, not invite Tito in Soviet Union,

because we're big country

and we have to show them that we were wrong.

NARRATION: Tito's Yugoslavia remained the only communist

country in Europe independent of the Kremlin.

Inside the Soviet Union, Khrushchev wanted to overcome

the legacy of Stalinist terror and hardship.

He put more resources into the production of

consumer goods and housing.

Thousands of political prisoners had been freed from the Gulag.

SERGEI KHRUSHCHEV: My father was a strong believer in the Communism.

For him it was the best life to the people,

just like the heaven of the earth

and he many times repeat that it is impossible to live in

the heaven surrounded by the barbed wires.

Khrushchev used the 20th Soviet Party

Congress to end the hero-worship of Stalin

and expose the cruelties of his dictatorship.

During a secret session,

Khrushchev made a speech that astounded every one present.

[speaking Russian ]

When he made his speech, people in the hall started to groan.

There were shouts of 'Shame?

NARRATION: Stalin, Khrushchev told his audience,

had ordered the imprisonment

and execution of thousands of loyal communists, workers,

managers and soldiers.

No one- peasant or general-

had been safe from Stalin's terror.

[speaking Russian ]

Khruschev himself wasn't without guilt.

He had played an active part in Stalin's

repressions in Ukraine and in other parts of the country.

He had no moral right to speak about Stalin

as if he himself was pure.

[speaking Russian ]

He did not say anything new for me

or for the majority of my friends.

He did not say everything that

needed to be said but we were happy that at least it was said.

He said it in a half-whisper, literally in secret.

It was not printed in the newspapers but came out in a

leaflet read at party meetings and sometimes outside.

We used to say- "This is the beginning of truth.

Truth will win!"

[speaking Russian ]

This fear, this tormenting fear after Stalin's death,

began to fade away.

After the Twentieth Congress

it looked as if this fear would never return.

Khrushchevs secret speech was perfect propaganda

for the American-financed Radio Free Europe.

The text of Khrushchevs speech was broadcast after

the CIA received a copy from the Israeli intelligence service.

They were just repeating for twenty-four hours,

one-hour speech over and over and over again.

And this was to the party people,

who were brain washed, who were led to believe,

and they did believe, that Stalin is God, that he is,

couldn't make any mistake,

everything he did was infallible.

Suddenly, they, their faith, their religion collapsed.

NARRATION: Poland was fertile territory for Radio Free Europe's message.

Stalinist policies had brought Polish workers close to revolt.

After years of shortages and hard work they wanted change.

In June 1956,

workers in Poznan demanded bread,

liberty and freedom for the Roman Catholic Church -

and above all,

an end to the Soviet domination of Poland.

The demonstrators were met with Polish tanks and Polish bullets.

Seventy-four people were killed.

Young protesters faced a show

trial to which foreign journalists were invited.

What really shocked the government, the regime,

was that it was the workers who rose.

It was not the people that they were afraid of

It was not the sort of... intellectuals;

it was not people involved in politics;

it was real workers and they were disgusted.

So that was a terrible blow to the regime.

NARRATION: The uprising in Poznan fuel led the spirit of rebellion.

Backed by Polish workers,

reformers in the communist party made ever more radical demands.

Some even called for the withdrawal of Soviet troops.

The reformers turned to Wladyslaw Gomulka,

a patriotic communist imprisoned under Stalin.

Without consulting the Kremlin,

Polish communists chose him as their new leader.

Fearful of an anti-Russian revolt,

Moscow ordered Soviet troops to advance on Warsaw.

And Khrushchev flew to Poland to teach Gomulka who was boss.

[Speaking Polish]

We were both horrified and amused

because he behaved in a very strange way.

He was running around and shaking his fist.

He accused us of wanting to break away

and said they wouldn't allow it.

He was behaving very badly.

NARRATION: While Gomulka and Khrushchev argued,

Soviet troops positioned themselves, ready to strike.

America looked on.

ARCHIVE: You are about to see the Secretary of State,

John Foster Dulles,

face the nation with questions from veteran

correspondents representing the Nation's press.

On the 17th of June 1953,

Mr. Secretary, the people of East Germany rose against

the Communist regime and the Russians were able to come in

and repress suppress the uprising by means of armed force.

We at that time sat back and allowed this to happen.

Would we sit back again in a similar fashion if this...

if this kind of uprising were to take place in Poland?

Well, I do not think that we would send our own armed forces

into Poland or into East Germany under those circumstances.

I doubt if that would be a profitable

or desirable thing to do.

It would be the last thing in the world that these people

who are trying to win their independence would want.

That would precipitate a full-scale world war

and probably the result of that

would be all these people wiped out.

NARRATION: Because he had the backing

of the Polish army and the Polish people,

Gomulka won his argument with Khrushchev.

Gomulka promised that Poland would remain

a loyal member of the Warsaw Pact.

In return he secured greater freedom of action

in Polish domestic affairs.

As Soviet troops were ordered back to barracks,

Gomulka addressed the people.

[Speaking Polish]

NARRATION: Gomulkafs promise of a freer,

more Polish nation, calmed the demonstrators.

Gomulka told me a few years later that he had a conversation

with Soviet Marshal Zhukov, who had been drinking.

Zhukov said, 'We were so well prepared that we could have been

all over Poland in three days;

we had very detailed plans'.

And Gomulka replied,

'Did you plan how many people on both sides would have perished?'

ARCHIVE- COMMENTARY: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin

NARRATION: After Stalin's death,

Hungary had remained under the ruthless dictatorship

of Matyas Rakosi.

It was a saying at that time;

it was like a joke.

There's only three kind of people in Hungary -

who was in jail, who is in jail and who will be in jail,

for political reasons.

NARRATION: Like Stalin,

Rakosi killed and imprisoned his rivals,

but people were expected to cheer and conform.

The new Kremlin leadership disapproved of Rakosi.

A senior Soviet official was sent to deal with him.

[Speaking Hungarian ]

Mikoyan the Armenian wheeler-dealer arrived.

Rakosi and I went to meet him at the airport

and took him back by car.

We were almost at the guesthouse when Mikoyan turned to Rakosi

and said, 'The Soviet leadership has decided you are ill.'

Well, Rakosi didn't think he was ill but, of course,

in those days illness was a political decision.

Mikoyan continued,

'You will need treatment in Moscow

so you will have to resign.'

NARRATION: The Soviets allowed Andras Hegedus

to remain Prime Minister.

But reformers in the Hungarian communist party sought

a leader more independent from Moscow

NARRATION: They wanted lmre Nagy to take over.

Like Gomulka in Poland,

Nagy was seen as a leader who would reform the party.

The Soviet Embassy in Budapest was uneasy.

[speaking Russian ]

Ambassador Andropov sensed the possible danger

and warned Moscow.

He sent a lot of telegrams,

he made phone calls and even went to Moscow himself.

He tried to warn everybody but it was all in vain.

Khrushchev thought he could cope with the situation.

NARRATION: Inspired by Gomu|ka's success in Poland,

thousands poured into the streets of Budapest.

Students and workers demanded free speech,

the disbanding of the secret police

and the withdrawal of Soviet troops.

They paraded Hungarian flags

with the communist emblem torn out.

[Speaking Hungarian ]

I was stopped halfway across Margit Bridge by

women students.

One of them asked me for my army cap.

She pinned the Hungarian national colors to it and

thrust a leaflet into my hand.

It contained fourteen demands.

I could agree with thirteen of these demands

but I couldn't agree with the fourteenth,

which called for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary.

This was a demand which we couldn't possibly achieve.

NARRATION: The demonstrators carried portraits of lmre Nagy.

Communist reformers urged him to take charge.

Imre Nagy was suddenly taken from his home to the Parliament.

And he spoke for some minutes.

He began saying Comrades' and then the crowd roared and said,

'We are not Comrades'

NARRATION: Nagy had misjudged the popular mood.

Hungarians wanted immediate and radical change.

NARRATION: In the centre of Budapest, an excited crowd toppled

the monument to Stalin.

Nagy stayed silent when Hungary's tottering

communist leadership called on the Kremlin to crush the

growing unrest.

[speaking Russian ]

I got a telephone call from my divisional commander in Cegied.

He told me, 'You've got to go to Budapest - it's urgent! '

I asked, 'What are my orders? '

I was told that orders would be given

when I arrived in the city.

We were approaching the city as dusk fell.

We thought that all that was needed was a show of force.

Then I heard a machine gun open fire

and the screams of a man who was wounded or dying.

Then I realized that things were going to get serious.

NARRATION: Armed civilians had prevented Soviet tank

re-enforcements from entering Budapest.

The Hungarians had equipped themselves with

Molotov cocktails, rifles, machine guns

and enthusiasm.

I don't know how the guns work but one older man his name was

Pista Baczi, he says 'Don't worry about it,

I'm going to teach you!'

And then I looked at the gun- was bigger than me!

They explained to me and showed me a couple of times.

And my very first time I had to use it

I close my eyes because, you know, for scared,

I never use gun before.

So then I now looked around and there was a couple of soldiers there

and they teared off from their uniform, they had stars,

the Russian stars, so they teared that off

And they said, 'Don't worry about it, little girl.

We'll take care of you!'

GERGELY PONGRACZ: Quite a few times I want to go home.

Maybe the next bullet is going to be mine.

And I started to go.

And when I saw the fourteen, fifteen year old kids dead,

I said, 'I was in the service for two and a quarter years.

I know how to handle a gun.

And I'm going home and I'm going to leave

these kids to die for our country?'

The shame kept me there.

NARRATION: During four days of fighting the Budapest

revolutionaries stood their ground.

There were heavy losses on both sides.

Imre Nagy arranged a ceasefire.

The Soviets agreed to withdraw their troops from Budapest.

The Kremlin hoped Nagy, now Prime Minister,

could restore communist authority.

But the patriot in Nagy was taking over.

Cautiously he decided to back the Hungarian revolutionaries.

[Speaking Hungarian ]

I'll tell you quite honestly - and this is not only my opinion,

this is what every revolutionary thinks,

at least the ones who dare express their opinions.

We only recognized imre Nagy as our Prime Minister

when he actually acknowledged the revolution.

He announced, "This is not a counter-revolution,

this is a fight for freedom".

NARRATION: During the fighting in Budapest,

many people had taken refuge in cellars.

As they emerged they found much of their city in ruins.

The Hungarians thought they had won their revolution.

They came out to mourn their dead heroes.

NARRATION: Western correspondents flocked

to Hungary to report on a victory.

CHARLES WHEELER: What do you hope will happen now?

We hope that our country will be entirely free and we can work

and we can have free connections with West...

CHARLES WHEELER: People were enormously optimistic that life had changed.

Everywhere in the country the Hungarian tricolor was flying

with the middle torn out, the Communist emblem torn out.

It was, seemed to be a completely liberated country.

NARRATION: Many Hungarians looked to America and the West

to guarantee their revolution.

Behind me is the blue Danube in Budapest.

The scene is calm enough here but

the rest of this city is in a bloody turmoil.

For more than a week,

the Hungarian rebels have been attacking

the signs of Soviet tyranny.

It's become a platitude to say

of the people that they've earned their freedom

but it's the only thing that can really be

said of the Hungarians today.

Whether they will be free is still

in the issue but if sheer guts can win freedom, they'll win.

NARRATION: The West's attention was diverted by another

crisis far from Europe.

An extraordinary military venture was beginning

in the Middle East.

Egypt's Suez Canal was attacked by Britain, France and Israel.

America hadn't been consulted and was infuriated.

So too were Hungarians.

We went to interview the head

of the resistance in Gyor,

which is the main town in western Hungary

and he gave us an interview.

And then he said 'You have wrecked...

you the British and, of course, the French,

have wrecked our rising by starting

a war in the Middle East.

This will put the Russians in a position where they can,

in effect, act with impunity because every-

the world's eyes will be on the Middle East and not on Hungary'.

So they were angry.

NARRATION: With the Soviet army no longer in the city,

the revolutionaries in Budapest took revenge.

Communist party offices were destroyed -

the Red flag burned.

Secret policemen were strung up.

[speaking Russian ]

With lmre Nagy in power, there was an orgy of

bloodletting in the streets of Budapest and other cities.

I saw people being strung up by their feet,

people being publicly humiliated and trampled on.

NARRATION: The Soviets sent more troops into Hungary.

Prime Minister Nagy tried one last gamble.

With Austria in mind, Nagy declared

Hungarian neutrality and divorce from the Warsaw Pact.

He hoped international pressure would stop the Soviets

crushing the revolution.

[speaking Russian ]

Imre Nagy's government was not a legitimate one.

Therefore any decision it took concerning the Warsaw Pact,

which Hungary had joined according to its own laws, was,

to put it mildly, invalid.

NARRATION: Other communist states, especially China,

were urging Khrushchev to use force.

It was a very complicated decision

to my father as he thought for three or four days.

He talk with the Chinese, with other representatives

and one time they decided not to use force and they told no.

We have to use force? Yes? No? Yes? No?

At last it was decision, yes to use it.

[speaking Russian ]

We were told to get ready to re-enter Budapest

because the terror had started.

We were not a force of occupation.

Instead we were going in as saviors to protect the

people from banditry and terrorism.

We knew that the Americans might

also enter the city from the West.

We asked our divisional commander,

'Could this mean war?'

He said, 'Yes.

This could be the beginning of World War Three'.

NARRATION: On November the 4th 1956,

the Soviet army re-entered Budapest.

BELA KIRALY: I called up lmre Nagy.

And I then tell that, 'Mr. Prime Minister,

all the signs we observe, the massive troop employment,

the unrestricted shooting and now the attack against

the final perimeter of Budapest;

all of this suggests to me that we are in war

with the Soviet Union.

I recommend that you, as Prime Minister,

state for the nation, for the world,

that Hungary is in war with the Soviet Union,

due to the Soviet aggression'.

He dressed me down practically -

'No war with the Soviet Union!'

NARRATION: Khrushchev had ordered the attack after the Americans

had let him understand,

that as far as Eisenhower was concerned,

Hungary belonged in the Soviet sphere of influence.

Too late, lmre Nagy appealed to the world.

IMRE NAGY: [speaking Hungarian ]

NARRATION: The Hungarian fighters waited in vain for Western help.

And the fact that, if the West intervened,

it rah the high risk of generating a world war

really meant that we didn't want to see physical uprisings,

and the policy at least was don't,

also don't create any hopes on the part of the satellite

countries that we will intervene.

Radio Free Europe and they were saying,

'Hang on, two three weeks, three more weeks, we come in,

We help you!'

[gunfire]

So we fight for the last bullet,

the last drop of blood we was holding onto,

and what happened was, they was lying to us,

nobody came.

NARRATION: The Hungarian Revolution was crushed.

Thousands were killed in the fighting.

Imre Nagy was executed.

Two hundred thousand Hungarians fled into Austria

before the frontier was sealed by Soviet troops.

The millions who stayed behind in Hungary were prisoners.

Khrushchev had re-eh forced the Iron Curtain.